Abstract:

The objective of this study is to examine what politeness strategies Thai hotel receptionists use to respond to complaints made by American male and female customers. The receptionists’ English proficiency level was upper-intermediate based on their TOEIC scores. There were 30 participants in this study, comprising 15 males and 15 females. They had an average number of 5.5 years of work experience at chained-brand hotels in Bangkok and were exposed to English at work as a medium of communication for 35 to 40 hours per week. Their age range was between 28 and 38 years old. Tannen (2007) found that communication styles of men and women when dealing with complaints were different. She looked at the speaker’s gender but overlooked at the addressee’s gender. This study aimed at bridging the gap by exploring the role of the addressee’s gender. Data were collected by means of oral discourse completion tasks (DCTs). There were six scenarios: two on personal skills (language and communication skills), another two on aspects of performance (customer service) and the other two on qualities of possessions (cleanliness). Preliminary analysis disclosed that, when responding to complaints, the Thai hotel receptionists normally produced a large speech act set. They began their responses with an expression of apology regardless of customer’s gender. Further analysis showed that when responding to male customers, the participants normally provided an explanation and offered a solution to problems. When responding to female customers, on the other hand, the participants normally showed an acknowledgment of responsibility and expressed their gratitude towards the customer complaints. At this stage of analysis, selections of politeness strategies by Thai hotel receptionists were different when responding to complaints made by customers of different genders.     

Keywords: Responses to Complaints, Gender, Politeness Strategies